Many products, such as personal care and pharmaceutical compositions that are used by spraying or atomizing, often contain high concentrations of alcohol (i.e. greater than about 60% alcohol by weight). These high-alcohol content compositions can create both an undesirable odor of alcohol and an undesirable stinging or burning sensation in the nose or throat when the composition is sprayed or atomized. As a result, both the alcohol odor and the alcohol sting can greatly decrease consumer acceptance and, consequently, use of the product.
In most cases the alcohol content is a vital component of the composition, because alcohol is an excellent solvent for facilitating the delivery of a wide variety of cosmetic and pharmaceutical actives, and because it readily evaporates after facilitating the delivery of active components. Many cosmetic and pharmaceutical products contain polymeric material which can provide benefits such as, rheological properties, aesthetic properties, delivery and substantivity of actives, skin or hair conditioning, hair styling, etc. Because many polymeric materials are alcohol soluble, decreasing the concentration of alcohol in such compositions is not desirable, and in some cases not feasible. Thus, high-alcohol content compositions having substantially reduced alcohol odor and alcohol sting are desired.
To achieve the desirable objectives discussed in the preceding paragraph, the proper physiological mechanisms of alcohol sense perception should be understood. Without being limited by theory, it is believed that alcohol affects two different physiological mechanisms. At lower concentrations the odor of alcohol is perceived through the sense of smell as being "sweet smelling." However, it is believed that at higher alcohol concentrations the alcohol reaches a threshold level and also causes a stinging or burning sensation in the nose or throat. The traditional approaches to masking the odor of alcohol have failed to account for these two differing mechanisms.
One traditional approach to overcoming the alcohol odor and alcohol sting is to simply add perfumes. This approach, however, merely results in compositions that smell like the perfume, but fail to reduce the alcohol sting. Thus, at higher alcohol concentrations, overpowering the sense of smell with perfumes fail to substantially reduce the alcohol sting. This ineffective approach results from the common misconception of equating the stinging or irritation of alcohol to the smell or odor of alcohol. The compositions of the present invention address both problems by substantially reducing both the alcohol odor and the alcohol sting.
It has been surprisingly found in the present invention that compositions comprising certain perfumery components substantially reduce both the alcohol odor and the alcohol sting, even from sprayed or atomized compositions having a high alcohol concentration (e.g. greater than about 60 by weight of the composition). Additionally, these perfumery components do not substantially interfere with the parent or signature fragrance of the compositions which may be ineffective in substantially masking or reducing the alcohol odor and sting. It is desireable to not interfere with the parent or signature fragrance of a composition because consumers may identify the signature fragrance with the product or because the signature fragrance may have the best consumer acceptance.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide personal care and pharmaceutical compositions having a high alcohol content (e.g., greater than about 60% by weight of the composition) and a personal care polymer which comprises an alcohol-masking perfumery component which substantially reduces both the odor of alcohol and the stinging sensation in the nose or throat when the compositions are sprayed or atomized.
It is another object of the present invention to substantially reduce both the odor and the stinging sensation of alcohol in high alcohol-content compositions (e.g., greater than about 60% by weight of the composition) without decreasing the alcohol content.
It is another object of the present invention to substantially reduce the stinging sensation of alcohol in high alcohol-content compositions while not significantly interfering with the parent or signature fragrance of the compositions.
It is another object of the present invention to increase consumer acceptance of high-alcohol content compositions which are used by spraying or atomizing the compositions.
These and other objects of this invention will become apparent in light of the following disclosure.